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  • A former Philly medic is charged with stealing from a dead woman

    A former Philly medic is charged with stealing from a dead woman

    A former Philadelphia Fire Department medic has been charged with stealing money from a 72-year-old woman who had been pronounced dead during the response to an apartment in Center City last year, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Friday.

    Gary Robb, 41, was charged in early December with misdemeanor theft and related crimes.

    A spokesperson for the fire department declined to comment on the case except to say that Robb no longer worked for the department.

    Robb could not be reached for comment Friday night.

    On Oct. 16, Robb was part of a medic response to an apartment building on the 1300 block of Lombard Street and encountered an unresponsive person who was later pronounced dead, Krasner said.

    The person who died was identified as Nanette Santilli by her niece, Nicolette Santilli Holt, 28, of Philadelphia.

    A video camera inside the home recorded Robb removing money from the dead person’s wallet and placing the money in his jacket pocket, the DA said.

    “The alleged incident is an egregious misuse of power,” Krasner said in a statement.

    “The men and women of the Philadelphia Fire Department are trusted public servants, and nothing alleged here diminishes the importance or integrity of their work. We will aggressively pursue the facts to ensure accountability and justice,” he said.

    The investigation is ongoing.

    Holt in an interview Friday night described her aunt as a generous person.

    “She was the absolute best: crazy, loud, loving, gentle, funny — just one of a kind,” Holt said.

    “She had a voice you couldn’t miss blocks away. She always had a loud set of keys, a roll of paper towels, and a Red Bull with her big handbag,” Holt said. “Truly one of a kind and would’ve helped anyone, so to see someone take advantage is a shame.”

  • Senate passes Trump-backed government funding deal, sending it to House

    Senate passes Trump-backed government funding deal, sending it to House

    WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Friday to fund most of the government through the end of September while carving out a temporary extension for Homeland Security funding, giving Congress two weeks to debate new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country.

    With a weekend shutdown looming, President Donald Trump struck the spending deal with Senate Democrats on Thursday in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. Democrats said they would not vote for the larger spending bill unless Congress considers legislation to unmask agents, require more warrants and allow local authorities to help investigate any incidents.

    “The nation is reaching a breaking point,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote. ”The American people are demanding that Congress step up and force change.”

    As lawmakers in both parties called for investigations into the fatal shootings, Trump said he didn’t want a shutdown and negotiated the rare deal with Schumer, his frequent adversary. Trump then encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”

    The bill passed 71-29 and will now head to the House, which is not due back until Monday. That means the government could be in a partial shutdown temporarily over the weekend until they pass it.

    Speaker Mike Johnson, who held a conference call Friday with GOP lawmakers, said he expects the House to vote Monday evening. But what is uncertain is how much support there will be for the package.

    Johnson’s right flank has signaled opposition to limits on Homeland Security funds, leaving him reliant on Democrats who have their own objections to funding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without immediate restraints.

    Two-week debate over ICE

    It was unclear how involved Trump will be in the negotiations over new restrictions on immigration arrests — or if Republicans and Democrats could find any points of compromise.

    Senate Democrats will not support an extension of Homeland Security funding in two weeks “unless it reins in ICE and ends violence,” Schumer said. “If our colleagues are not willing to enact real change, they should not expect Democratic votes.”

    Similarly, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that any change in the homeland bill needs to be “meaningful and it needs to be transformative.”

    Absent “dramatic change,” Jeffries said, “Republicans will get another shutdown.”

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the two sides will “sit down in good faith,” but it will be “really, really hard to get anything done,” especially in such a short amount of time.

    “We’ll stay hopeful, but there are some pretty significant differences of opinion,” Thune said.

    Democrats demand change

    Irate Democrats have asked the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.

    They also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.

    Alex Pretti, a 37 year-old ICU nurse, was killed by a border patrol agent on Jan. 24, two weeks after protester Renee Good was killed by an ICE officer. Administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, originally said Pretti had aggressively approached officers, but multiple videos contradicted that claim.

    Republican pushback

    The president’s concessions to Democrats prompted pushback from some Senate Republicans, delaying the final votes and providing a preview of the coming debate over the next two weeks. In a fiery floor speech, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned that Republicans should not give away too much.

    “To the Republican party, where have you been?” Graham said, adding that ICE agents and Border Patrol agents have been “slandered and smeared.”

    Several Republicans have said that if Democrats are going to push for restrictions on ICE, they will push for restrictions on so-called “sanctuary cities” that they say do not do enough to enforce illegal immigration.

    “There no way in hell we’re going to let Democrats knee cap law enforcement and stop deportations in exchange for funding DHS,” said Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., ahead of the vote.

    Still, some Republicans said they believe that changes to ICE’s operations were necessary, even as they were unlikely to agree to all of the Democrats’ requests.

    “I think the last couple of days have been an improvement,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. “I think the rhetoric has been dialed down a little bit, in Minnesota.”

    Last-minute promises

    After Trump announced the deal with Democrats, Graham held the spending bills up for almost a day until Thune agreed to give him a vote on his sanctuary cities bill at a later date.

    Separately, Graham was also protesting a repeal of a new law giving senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge — as happened to him and other senators as part of the so-called Arctic Frost investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by Trump supporters at the Capitol.

    The spending bill, which was passed by the House last week, would repeal that law. But Graham said Thune had agreed to consider a separate bill that would allow “groups and private citizens” who were caught up in Jack Smith’s probe to sue.

  • Jeffrey Epstein inquired about buying a plane from Penn megadonor Marc Rowan

    Jeffrey Epstein inquired about buying a plane from Penn megadonor Marc Rowan

    Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein once inquired about buying a private plane from University of Pennsylvania megadonor and Wharton School adviser Marc Rowan, emails released by the U.S. Department of Justice show.

    The exchange, which appears among the three million documents unsealed Friday, occurred in early 2016, at a time when Epstein was corresponding with several executives from Apollo Global Management, the New York-based private equity firm Rowan cofounded in 1990 and where he now serves as CEO.

    Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff emailed Rowan’s office on Jan. 12 and asked for details about Rowan’s private plane: “Jeffrey is asking if he could get the details of Marc’s plane for sale…the hours, photos, any pertinent information! Possible?”

    It was not clear whether Rowan ever personally followed up on the plane offer, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, but a representative for the jet company offered Epstein the Gulfstream G450 for $18.9 million, noting it was in “immaculate condition.” The plane ultimately was sold to another buyer, according to Bloomberg.

    A spokesperson for Rowan declined to comment Friday.

    Beyond his success on Wall Street, Rowan has become a powerful and controversial force at Penn, where he serves as chairman of the advisory board at the Wharton School. The billionaire executive donated more than $10 million to the school last year, and led a campaign to oust former Penn president Liz Magill and board chair Scott L. Bok over the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

    While Rowan’s business relationship with Epstein has not been widely reported, Epstein had a long history with Rowan’s predecessor and fellow cofounder at Apollo, Leon Black. Black was one of the few Wall Street bosses who stood by Epstein after his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting sex from a minor, according to the New York Times. He stepped down as CEO and chairman of the company in 2021 after it came to light that he had paid Epstein more than $158 million in adviser fees over the years.

    New Epstein files show years of email exchanges with Sixers co-owner Josh Harris

    A week prior to the plane inquiry, Rowan had breakfast at Epstein’s home in New York City — at Rowan’s request, emails show. The two financiers were engaged in some kind of investment together, the details of which are not entirely clear in the DOJ emails. The documents do not indicate Rowan and Epstein discussed anything other than business.

    In February 2016, a month after the plane inquiry, Epstein emailed Rowan to ask him for a phone call, though he did not say what about.

    Rowan’s name appears in Epstein’s emails dating back to 2013, including a proposed meeting that year at Epstein’s New York City residence involving Black and another Apollo cofounder, Josh Harris.

    Harris, who also owns the Sixers, and Epstein also corresponded multiple times over several years, although a Harris spokesperson said he sought to avoid meeting with Epstein to prevent him from forming a formal relationship with Apollo.

    Rowan, in contrast, appears to have sought Epstein out for meetings, like the one that took place prior to Epstein’s plane offer.

    “Marc said if Jeffrey wants an early breakfast that will work for him,” an Apollo assistant wrote to Epstein’s handler. “He will bring coffee!”

    This story has been updated to clarify Epstein’s relationship with Apollo Global Management.

  • Trump administration approves new arms sales to Israel worth $6.67 billion

    Trump administration approves new arms sales to Israel worth $6.67 billion

    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has approved a massive new arms sales package to Israel totaling $6.67 billion, including 30 Apache attack helicopters and related equipment and weapons, as well as 3,250 light tactical vehicles.

    The State Department announced the four separate sales to Israel late Friday amid rising tensions in the Middle East over the possibility of U.S. military strikes in Iran.

    The sales also were announced as President Donald Trump pushes ahead with his ceasefire plan for Gaza that is intended to end the Israel-Hamas conflict and reconstruct and redevelop the Palestinian territory after two years of war left it devastated, with tens of thousands dead.

    The Apache helicopters, which will be equipped with rocket launchers and advanced targeting gear, are the biggest part of the total package, coming to $3.8 billion, according to the State Department, which notified Congress of its approval of the sales on Friday.

    The next largest portion is the light tactical vehicles, which will be used to move personnel and logistics “to extend lines of communication” for the Israel Defense Forces and will cost $1.98 billion, it said.

    Israel will spend an additional $740 million on power packs for armored personnel carriers it has had in service since 2008, the department said. The remaining $150 million will be spent on a small but unreported number of light utility helicopters to complement similar equipment it already has, it said.

    In separate but nearly identical statements, the department said none of the new sales would affect the military balance in the region and that all of them would “enhance Israel’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving its ability to defend Israel’s borders, vital infrastructure, and population centers.”

    “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the statements said.

  • Journalist Don Lemon is charged with federal civil rights crimes in anti-ICE church protest

    Journalist Don Lemon is charged with federal civil rights crimes in anti-ICE church protest

    LOS ANGELES — Journalist Don Lemon was released from custody Friday after he was arrested and hit with federal civil rights charges over his coverage of an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church.

    Lemon was arrested Thursday while across the country in Los Angeles, while another independent journalist and two protest participants were arrested in Minnesota. He struck a confident, defiant tone while speaking to reporters after a court appearance in California.

    “I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now,” Lemon said. “In fact there is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable.”

    3 people involved in a Minnesota church protest are arrested

    The arrests brought sharp criticism from news media advocates and civil rights activists including the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said the Trump administration is taking a “sledgehammer” to “the knees of the First Amendment.”

    The four were charged with conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official is a pastor.

    In federal court in Los Angeles, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Robbins argued for a $100,000 bond, telling a judge that Lemon “knowingly joined a mob that stormed into a church.” He was released, however, without having to post money and was granted permission to travel to France in June while the case is pending.

    Defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski said Lemon plans to plead not guilty and fight the charges.

    Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023 following a bumpy run as a morning host, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and he was there as a solo journalist chronicling protesters.

    “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”

    Attorney General Pam Bondi promoted the arrests on social media.

    “Make no mistake. Under President Trump’s leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely,” Bondi said in a video posted online. “And if I haven’t been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you.”

    ‘Keep trying’

    Since he left CNN, Lemon has joined the legion of journalists who have gone into business for himself, posting regularly on YouTube. He hasn’t hidden his disdain for President Donald Trump. Yet during his online show from the church, he said repeatedly: “I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene before him, and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.

    A magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge the veteran journalist. Shortly after, he predicted on his show that the administration would try again.

    “And guess what,” he said. “Here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”

    Georgia Fort livestreamed the moments before her arrest, telling viewers that agents were at her door and her First Amendment right as a journalist was being diminished.

    A judge released Fort, Trahern Crews, and Jamael Lundy on bond, rejecting the Justice Department’s attempt to keep them in custody. Not guilty pleas were entered. Fort’s supporters in the courtroom clapped and whooped.

    “It’s a sinister turn of events in this country,” Fort’s attorney, Kevin Riach, said in court.

    Discouraging scrutiny

    Jane Kirtley, a media law and ethics expert at the University of Minnesota, said the federal laws cited by the government were not intended to apply to reporters gathering news.

    The charges against Lemon and Fort, she said, are “pure intimidation and government overreach.”

    Some experts and activists said the charges were not only an attack on press freedoms but also a strike against Black Americans who count on Black journalists to bear witness to injustice and oppression.

    The National Association of Black Journalists said it was “outraged and deeply alarmed” by Lemon’s arrest. The group called it an effort to “criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement.”

    Crews is a leader of Black Lives Matter Minnesota who has led many protests and actions for racial justice, particularly following George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in 2020.

    After Trump administration officials said earlier this month that arrests would be coming in the church protest, Crews told the Associated Press there’s a “tradition” of Black activists and leaders being targeted or subjected to violence.

    “Just as being a Black person, you always have to have that in mind,” Crews said.

    Protesters charged previously

    A prominent civil rights attorney and two other people involved in the protest were arrested last week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.

    The Justice Department launched an investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

    Lundy, a candidate for state Senate, works for the office of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and is married to a St. Paul City Council member. Lemon briefly interviewed him as they gathered with protesters preparing to drive to the church on Jan. 18.

    “I feel like it’s important that if you’re going to be representing people in office that you are out here with the people,” Lundy told Lemon, adding he believed in “direct action, certainly within the lines of the law.”

    Church leaders praise arrests in protest

    Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads ICE’s St. Paul field office.

    “We are grateful that the Department of Justice acted swiftly to protect Cities Church so that we can continue to faithfully live out the church’s mission to worship Jesus and make him known,” lead pastor Jonathan Parnell said.

  • Tens of thousands face another arctic blast without power as East Coast preps for a new storm

    Tens of thousands face another arctic blast without power as East Coast preps for a new storm

    BELZONI, Miss. — As tens of thousands of people endured nearly a week with no electricity, another storm loomed on the East Coast where residents braced for near-hurricane force winds, heavy snow, and potential flooding.

    More than 230,000 homes and businesses were without electricity Friday, with the vast majority of those outages in Mississippi and Tennessee, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us.

    In Mississippi’s Lafayette County, where about 12,000 people were still without electricity midday Friday, emergency management agency spokesperson Beau Moore said he knows not everyone will get power back before the cold hits.

    “It’s a race against time to get it on for those we can get it on for,” Moore said.

    Workers are attacking the project by ground and air. A video on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Facebook page shows a worker sitting on the skids of a hovering helicopter so they can repair a giant power structure.

    Arctic air moving into the Southeast was expected to cause already frigid temperatures to plummet into the teens on Friday night in cities like Nashville, where many still lacked power nearly a week after a massive storm dumped snow and ice across the eastern U.S., the National Weather Service said.

    Forecasters say the subfreezing weather will persist in the eastern U.S. into February and there’s high chance of heavy snow in the Carolinas, Virginia, and northeast Georgia this weekend, possibly up to a foot in parts of North Carolina. Snow is also possible along the East Coast from Maryland to Maine.

    On Saturday night and early Sunday, forecasters expect wind and snow that could lead to blizzard conditions before the storm starts to move to sea.

    Snow should pile up in the Carolinas

    Several inches of snow, possibly 1 foot in some locations, were forecast statewide, particularly in eastern counties.

    Hundreds of state National Guard soldiers were ready to help. State workers have also been preparing roads.

    In Myrtle Beach, S.C., a town more accustomed to hurricanes, traffic jams and tourists, the National Weather Service predicted 6 inches of snow.

    The city has no snow removal equipment. Mayor Mark Kruea said they will “use what we can find” — maybe a motor grader or bulldozer to scrape streets.

    “With a hurricane you can storm proof many things,” Kruea said Friday. “But at a place like this, there is only a few things you can do to get ready for snow.”

    In North Carolina, several inches of snow, possibly 1 foot in some locations, were forecast statewide, particularly in eastern counties.

    In Wake Forest, N.C., people filled propane tanks Friday at Holding Oil and Gas, where employee Stanley Harris disconnected one tank, set it aside with a clank and then hooked up another.

    In Dare County to the east, home to much of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, longtime resident Bob Woodard said he’s worried about that more unoccupied houses in communities like Rodanthe and Buxton could collapse into the Atlantic Ocean.

    Hypothermia risks grow

    With the wave of dangerous cold heading for the South, experts say the risk of hypothermia heightens for people in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee who are entering their sixth day trapped at home without power in subfreezing temperatures.

    “The body can handle cold temperatures briefly very well, but the prolonged exposure is a problem,” said Hans House, University of Iowa professor of emergency medicine.

    People who are more vulnerable — the elderly, infants and those with underlying health conditions — may have started experiencing hypothermia symptoms within hours of exposure to the frigid temperatures, explained Zheng Ben Ma, medical director of the University of Washington Medical Center’s northwest emergency department. That can include exhaustion, slurred speech, and memory loss.

    “Once you get into days six, seven, upward of 10, then even a healthy, resilient person will be more predisposed to experiencing some of those deleterious effects of the cold temperature,” he said.

    Frostbite is also a concern in southern states, where people might not own clothes for northern winters, said David Nestler, an emergency medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

    Mississippi and Tennessee still seeking full power

    Mississippi officials say it’s the state’s worst winter storm since 1994. About 80 warming centers were opened in one of the nation’s poorest states. National Guard troops were delivering supplies by truck and helicopter.

    Yazoo Valley Electric Power Association workers, some of whom don’t have power at their own homes, are working 16-hour days to restore electricity in Mississippi. Workers cut their way through downed trees to reach some areas for repairs, said Michael Neely, CEO and general manager.

    Worker Ethan Green, 21, said he feels pressure to get the job done quickly. “We can only go so quick,” he said. “In order to do it safely, we have to take our time.”

    In Tennessee, crews were also distributing supplies, said Gov. Bill Lee.

    The governor on Friday also said he has shared “strong concerns” with Nashville Electric Service leadership, saying communication with customers and power restoration efforts must improve.

    Tennesseans “need a clear timeline for power restoration, transparency on the number of linemen deployed, and a better understanding of when work will be completed in their neighborhood,” Lee said.

    Nashville residents’ criticisms have grown louder over their utility’s storm preparations and recovery, as more than 60,000 homes and businesses it serves remained powerless with frigid temperatures expected. Nashville Electric Service has defended its approach, saying it was an unprecedented storm. At the peak, about half of its customers in and near the capital city lost power.

    Nearly 90 people have died in bitter cold from Texas to New Jersey. Roughly half the deaths were reported in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. While some deaths have been attributed to hypothermia, others are suspected to be related to carbon monoxide exposure. Officials have not released specific details about how some of the people died.

    The arctic cold was expected to plunge as far south as Florida.

  • The Justice Department released 3 million pages from its Jeffrey Epstein files

    The Justice Department released 3 million pages from its Jeffrey Epstein files

    NEW YORK — The Justice Department on Friday released many more records from its investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein, resuming disclosures under a law intended to reveal what the government knew about the millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of young girls and his interactions with rich and powerful people such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton.

    Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department would be releasing more than 3 million pages of documents in the latest Epstein disclosure, as well as more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. The files, posted to the department’s website, include some of the several million pages of records that officials said were withheld from an initial release in December.

    Included in the batch were records concerning some of Epstein’s famous associates, including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Britain’s Prince Andrew, as well as email correspondence between Epstein and Elon Musk and other prominent contacts from across the political spectrum.

    The documents were disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted after months of public and political pressure that requires the government to open its files on the late financier and his confidant and onetime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Lawmakers complained when the Justice Department made only a limited release last month, but officials said more time was needed to review an additional trove of documents that was discovered and to scour the records to ensure no sensitive information about victims was inadvertently released.

    “Today’s release marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people and compliance with the act,” Blanche said at a news conference announcing the disclosure.

    Friday’s disclosure represents the largest document dump to date about a saga the Trump administration has struggled for months to shake because of the president’s previous association with Epstein. State and federal investigations into the financier have long animated online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and others who have suspected government cover-ups and clamored for a full accounting, demands that even Blanche acknowledged might not be satisfied by the latest release.

    “There’s a hunger, or a thirst, for information that I don’t think will be satisfied by the review of these documents,” he said.

    After missing a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress to release all the files, the Justice Department said it tasked hundreds of lawyers with reviewing the records to determine what needed to be redacted, or blacked out. But it denied any effort to shield Trump, who says he cut ties with Epstein years ago despite an earlier friendship, from potential embarrassment.

    “We did not protect President Trump. We didn’t protect — or not protect — anybody,” Blanche said.

    Among the materials withheld is information that could jeopardize any ongoing investigation or expose the identities of potential victims of sex abuse. Women other than Maxwell were redacted from videos and images being released Friday, Blanche said.

    The number of documents subject to review ballooned to roughly 6 million, including duplicates.

    Epstein’s famous friends

    The latest batch of documents include correspondence either with or about some of Epstein’s friends.

    Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times in the documents, sometimes in news clippings, sometimes in Epstein’s private email correspondence and in guest lists for dinners organized by Epstein. Some of the records also document an attempt by prosecutors in New York to get the former prince to agree to be interviewed as part of their Epstein sex trafficking probe.

    The records also show that Musk, the billionaire Tesla founder, reached out to Epstein on at least two separate occasions to plan visits to the Caribbean island where many of the allegations of sexual abuse purportedly occurred.

    In a 2012 exchange, Epstein inquired how many people Musk would like flown by helicopter to the island he owned — Little Saint James in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    “Probably just Talulah and me,” Musk responded, referencing his partner at the time, actress Talulah Riley. “What day/night will be the wildest party on our island?”

    Musk messaged Epstein again ahead of a planned trip to the Caribbean in December 2013. “Will be in the BVI/St Bart’s area over the holidays,” he wrote. “Is there a good time to visit?” Epstein responded by extending an invite for sometime after the New Year holiday.

    It’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespersons for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

    Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures.

    “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025 when House Democrats released an Epstein calendar with an entry mentioning a potential Musk visit to the island.

    The documents also contain hundreds of friendly text messages between Epstein and Steve Bannon during Trump’s first term.

    Bannon, a conservative activist who served as Trump’s White House strategist earlier in the president’s first term, bantered over politics with the financier, discussed get-togethers with him over breakfast, lunch or dinner and, on March 29, 2019, asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome: “Is it possible to get your plane here to collect me?”

    Epstein told him his pilot and crew “are doing their best” to arrange that flight but if Bannon could find a charter flight instead, “I’m happy to pay.” Apparently in France at the time, Epstein followed up with a text saying: “My guys can pick you up. Come for dinner.” The exchange did not show how that played out.

    On one occasion in December 2012, Epstein invited Howard Lutnick — now Trump’s commerce secretary — to his private island in the Caribbean for lunch, documents released Friday show. Lutnick’s wife, Allison Lutnick, enthusiastically accepted the invitation and said they would arrive on a yacht with their children. On another occasion in 2011, the two men had drinks, according to a schedule shared with Epstein.

    Lutnick has tried to distance himself from Epstein, saying in a 2025 interview that he cut ties decades ago and calling him “gross.” He didn’t respond to a request for comment Friday.

    During Trump’s first term, Epstein emailed Kathy Ruemmler, a lawyer and former Obama White House official, to warn that Democrats should stop demonizing Trump as a Mafia-type figure even as he derided the president as a “maniac.”

    A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs, where Ruemmler serves as general counsel and chief legal officer, said in a statement that Ruemmler “had a professional association with Jeffrey Epstein when she was a lawyer in private practice” and “regrets ever knowing him.”

    Building on the earlier release

    The Justice Department released tens of thousands of pages of documents just before Christmas, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs and court records. Many were either already public or heavily blacked out.

    They included previously released flight logs showing Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet in the 1990s, before they had a falling-out, and several photographs of Clinton. Neither Trump, a Republican, nor Clinton, a Democrat, has been publicly accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. Both have said they had no knowledge he was abusing underage girls.

    Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.

    In 2008 and 2009, Epstein served jail time in Florida after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. At the time, investigators had gathered evidence that Epstein had sexually abused underage girls at his Palm Beach home. The U.S. attorney’s office agreed not to prosecute him in exchange for his guilty plea to lesser state charges.

    In 2021, a federal jury in New York convicted Maxwell, a British socialite, of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of his underage victims. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence at a prison camp in Texas, after being moved there from a prison in Florida. She denies any wrongdoing.

    U.S. prosecutors never charged anyone else in connection with Epstein’s abuse of girls, but one of his victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, accused him in lawsuits of having arranged for her to have sexual encounters at age 17 and 18 with numerous politicians, business titans, noted academics, and others, all of whom denied her allegations.

    Among those she accused was Britain’s Prince Andrew, who was stripped of his royal titles amid the scandal. Andrew denied having sex with Giuffre but settled her lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.

    Giuffre died by suicide last year at age 41.

  • New Epstein files show years of email exchanges with Sixers co-owner Josh Harris

    New Epstein files show years of email exchanges with Sixers co-owner Josh Harris

    Jeffrey Epstein and Sixers co-owner Josh Harris had an ongoing business relationship that included numerous phone calls and at least one visit to Epstein’s home in Manhattan, according to emails released Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

    The emails do not contain any indication that Harris was involved with sexual misconduct. The records — buried within the three million documents made public Friday as part of the congressionally ordered release of the Epstein files — shed light on a yearslong correspondence that occurred after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for solicitation of prostitution with a minor, but before his 2019 arrest on child sex trafficking charges.

    Harris and Epstein moved in similar circles among Wall Street financial brokers. Harris, cofounder of the investment firm Apollo Global Management, exchanged multiple emails and phone calls with Epstein between 2013 and 2016.

    Jonathan Rosen, a spokesperson for Harris, noted that many of Epstein’s entreaties over the years went nowhere. He said the Sixers owner “never had an independent relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”

    “Harris sought to prevent Epstein’s attempts to develop a corporate relationship with Apollo,” he said. “As these emails indicate, Harris sought to avoid meeting with Epstein, canceling meetings and having others return his calls.”

    Evidence of one meeting between Epstein and Harris was detailed in earlier records released by the DOJ, and first reported by the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania. Harris is an alumnus of Penn’s Wharton School.

    Exchanges about this meeting, which have not been previously reported, began with a series of emails between Epstein’s and Harris’ schedulers on plans to meet at Epstein’s home in 2013, along with former Apollo CEO Leon Black and billionaire Marc Rowan, apparently to discuss financial affairs and investments.

    “Just reconfirming Leon, Josh and Marc will all go see Jeffrey at his home, 9 East 71st Street between 5th and Madison tomorrow, Tues. Oct. 22nd at 7am for a breakfast meeting,” a scheduler for Epstein wrote in an email from October 2013.

    Rowan, a major University of Pennsylvania donor who also chairs the Wharton School’s advisory board, declined to comment.

    Years later, it would emerge that Black had paid Epstein $158 million for “financial advice” despite the financier’s conviction on sex trafficking charges, leading to his ouster as head of the company.

    It is unclear if the 2013 meeting took place. Harris later apologized to Epstein for having “rescheduled on you a few times.”

    Correspondence between Harris and Epstein carried on.

    Emails from January 2014 then show Epstein’s assistant following up on a request for Harris to pull together a series of organizational documents at Epstein’s request.

    A June 2014 email features Epstein describing a proposed $2.4 million payment apparently from Harris to Black’s former executive assistant, Melanie Spinella.

    Details surrounding the payment, or if it ever occurred, were not clear.

    Later in 2014, Harris’ and Epstein’s schedulers e-mailed yet again to arrange a different visit to Epstein’s home.

    This time, Epstein proposed another breakfast, involving Black, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, tech investor Reid Hoffman, and Ron Baron, the founder of Baron Capital.

    “Jeffrey Epstein would like to invite Josh to breakfast on Dec. 5th at Jeffrey’s home in NY… Bill Gates will be in attendance. The breakfast will be intimate…less than 6 people,” one email invitation read.

    The pair also discussed the meeting directly.

    “Sorry i missed you. Crazy week,” Harris wrote to Epstein in November 2014. “U around any time from now to sunday? Whats this Bill Gates thing about? Tks for thinking about me.”

    “I thought you might like to schmooze,” wrote Epstein in response, asking Harris to call him. “nothing but fun friday 5th breakfast.”

    That meeting does appear to have taken place, based on subsequent emails, with Harris in attendance.

    “Did you have fun at breakfast?” Epstein wrote to Harris, about a week after the meeting was scheduled to take place.

    “Yes very much,” he responded. “Thank you for inviting me.”

    In another typo-laden email, Epstein later bragged to Bank of America president Paul Morris about the breakfast meeting.

    “as you might know I had a recent breadkfst at the hosue with ron baron. josh harris, and billgates,” he wrote in January 2015.

    Epstein’s relationship with Black and Apollo would eventually disintegrate over a legal dispute about his tax and estate planning fees. Harris and Epstein continued to email sporadically until at least 2016.

    In September of that year, Epstein e-mailed Harris again directly asking him to call him about an unspecified issue.

    “Any conversation that you prefer to stay between just us. will. its my financial confessional booth for jews,” Epstein wrote.

    “Will do Jeff,” Harris responded. “Happy to catch up. Thx.”

    Days later, Robert Bodian, managing partner at the Mintz law firm, reached out to Epstein, indicating he was contacting him at “Josh’s request,” apparently regarding a tax issue.

    Staff writer Gina Mizell contributed to this article.

  • Sharpies, colored paper, and sandwich boards become resistance art at the President’s House site

    Sharpies, colored paper, and sandwich boards become resistance art at the President’s House site

    The resistance was born on a Friday morning at the Gen. George A. McCall School photocopy machine.

    The copier spat the message out on yellow, purple, and orange paper — page after page amplifying the same sentiment scrawled on each in big black letters: Learn all history.

    In the aftermath of the removal of the slavery exhibit at the President’s House Site on Jan. 22, fourth-grade social studies teacher Kaity Berlin wanted to convert her rage into something productive, she said. She quickly thought of the words on one of her shirts: “Teach all history.” So she gathered some teacher friends, took to the photocopier, and headed to Independence National Historical Park.

    Berlin wasn’t the only one who saw the shallow silver frames at the President’s House as a void screaming to be filled.

    The exhibit included a series of signs describing what life was like for those enslaved by George Washington at the site and his complicated relationship with the institution of slavery. The exhibit was dismantled last week, several months after President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order requiring the review and potential removal of displays at the national parks that “inappropriately disparage” the United States.

    The city asked a federal justice to order that no more exhibits be removed from the President’s House and that the exhibits that were already removed be kept safe. In a hearing Friday, judge Cynthia M. Rufe didn’t issue a ruling but asked the Trump administration attorney that the exhibits remain untouched so she can review them Monday.

    Over that first weekend colorful signs populated the walls, reenactors donned historic garb and positioned themselves along the red brick pillars with a flourish, some people held giant replica signs of the ones that were removed, and others laid flowers delicately across the facility.

    To Berlin, whose school is a few blocks from the President’s House, posting the colorful signs was just a quick action she could take in her 45-minute prep period.

    “It was just a cathartic way to be like ‘Ugh, this sucks,’” Berlin said.

    But it soon became the first of numerous forms of activism and art that filled the space as more and more Philly-area residents yearned for a similar way to express their opposition to the removal of the plaques.

    Media ranged from cardboard to poster board. Tools included Sharpies and pens. Many of the more informal signs were affixed with painter’s tape to nooks in the brick structure and empty metallic shells where the original signs hung. Some more official-looking signs included QR codes and printed messages balanced on easels. Others were replicas of the signs that were there made with assistance from professional printing services.

    Ted Zellers, a property manager in North Philly, took a more full-body approach to his protest. He found a high-resolution image online of one of the removed signs, titled “Slavery in the President’s House,” got it printed twice, fashioned a sandwich board out of the posters, and became “a living sign,” he said.

    It was an educational tool he could wield, but it doubled as a warning.

    “I hope people will think about what other information is under threat of being disappeared,” Zellers said.

    He expected to be the only person in the park with a sign, but was heartened to see a few dozen others there withstanding the 17-degree air interspersed with sharp winds slicing through the open air exhibit.

    Albert DerMovsesian from Willow Grove, who came to the site equipped with one vertical sign detailing the labor that took place in the house and a horizontal one titled “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” found himself similarly pleased to see so many like-minded others around him.

    In the park he saw little kids writing on pieces of paper pasted to the walls, a woman leaving a sign with the names of those enslaved at the site, and people adorning the structure with flowers.

    “It reminded me that I wasn’t alone,” DerMovsesian said.

    “We don’t need 350 million Malcolm X’s to make the country better,” Zellers said. “We just need a lot of regular people who recognize that they’re part of networks and who can take some action and amplify what’s going on, pass it onm and get other people engaged.”

    The collage of images developed organically, but hearkened back to a long lineage of protest art that has become increasingly prevalent under the Trump administration, said Nicolo Gentile, an artist and adjunct faculty member at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

    Gentile likened the immediacy and style of the displays at the President’s House to the enlarged version of Trump’s birthday card to financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that popped up on the National Mall in Washington last month.

    A new protest art installation referencing the Epstein files and President Donald Trump was installed on Third Street SW along the National Mall.

    The assortment of papers reading “learn all history” gets its power from the relative anonymity of its author, Gentile said, as well as its use of repetition.

    “It starts to create a texture of sound of a greater voice the way that the many voices of a chant during protest does,” he said.

    While Berlin said she doesn’t see herself as an artist, she appreciates the punch of a stark and direct message through signage and art.

    “I do love the impact of a good simple piece,” she said.

    In some cases, political art can be used to “accelerate progress,” Gentile said, but sometimes its best use is halting regression and “to wedge our foot in the door as progress may seem to be closing.”

    “This work seems to be the foot in the door,” he said.

    People leave notes on the spaces at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park.
    Ted Zellers (right) wears a sandwich board with a replica of one of the removed slavery panels as people visit and protest at the President’s House site.
    Ted Zellers (left) wears a sandwich board with a replica of one of the removed slavery panels, joining Jenna and Gregory May (right) protesting at the President’s House.
    People leave notes and political satire cartoons in the spaces at the President’s House.
    People protest at the President’s House site.
    Al DerMovsesian holds replicas of some of the removed slavery panels as people visit the President’s House site.
    The President’s House in Independence National Historical Park.
    The President’s House in Independence National Historical Park.
    Michael Carver portrays Mordecai Sheftall as part of a “History Matters” guide at The President’s House.
    A sign was placed at the President’s House.
    A group of teacher taped posters along the now barren brick walls of the President’s House.
    A single rose and a handwritten cardboard sign (“Slavery is part of U.S. history learn from the past or repeat it”) are inside an empty hearth at the President’s House.
  • Israel reopening Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt on Sunday after long closure

    Israel reopening Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt on Sunday after long closure

    JERUSALEM — Israel said Friday that it will reopen the pedestrian border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt over the weekend, marking an important step forward for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan.

    COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said in a statement that starting on Sunday a “limited movement of people only” would be allowed through the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world.

    The announcement followed statements from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ali Shaath, newly appointed to head the Palestinian administrative committee governing Gaza’s daily affairs, that it would likely open soon.

    While COGAT said the passage will open in both directions on Sunday, Shaath said the first day will be a trial for operations and that travel both ways will start Monday.

    Israel as of Friday agreed to allow up to 150 people to leave each day — 50 medical patients with two family members, an official familiar with the situation told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing diplomatic talks. Up to 50 people who fled during the war can return daily, the source said.

    Roughly 20,000 sick and wounded Palestinians need treatment outside Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. Gaza’s health system was decimated in the war, rendering advanced surgical procedures out of reach.

    COGAT said both Israel and Egypt will vet individuals for exit and entry through the crossing, which will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents. In addition to screenings at the crossing, Palestinians leaving and returning will be screened by Israel in the adjacent corridor, which remains under Israeli military control.

    The crossing has been under a near complete closure since Israel seized it in May 2024, saying the step was part of a strategy to halt cross-border arms smuggling by Hamas. It was briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a short-lived ceasefire in early 2025.

    Israel had resisted reopening the crossing, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza on Monday cleared the way to move forward. A day later, Netanyahu said the crossing would soon open in a limited and controlled fashion.

    Thousands of Palestinians inside Gaza are trying to leave the war-battered territory, while tens of thousands who fled the territory during the heaviest fighting say they want to return home.

    The reopening is one of the first steps in the second phase of last year’s U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, which includes challenging issues ranging from demilitarizing Gaza to putting in place an alternative government to oversee rebuilding the mostly destroyed enclave.

    Netanyahu said this week that Israel’s focus is on disarming Hamas and destroying its remaining tunnels. Without these steps, he said that there would be no reconstruction in Gaza, a stance that could make Israel’s control over Rafah a key point of leverage.

    More deadly strikes in Gaza

    Palestinians in Gaza on Friday mourned friends and relatives who died earlier this week in Israeli strikes, which have slowed but not stopped since the return of the remains of the final hostage held in the territory.

    Three Palestinians were laid to rest in traditional Islamic funeral rites. Men gathered to pay their final respects, carrying the shrouded bodies through the streets before praying over them.

    Israel’s military said four people were killed in airstrikes Friday in central Gaza, saying they were armed and approaching troops near the ceasefire line dividing Israeli-held areas and most of Gaza’s Palestinian population.

    The most recent deaths Friday are on top of the 492 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire began in October, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. It maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.